relationship

Being constantly reminded of your ‘ticking body clock’; Freezing your eggs has now never been easier with a new breakthrough in Cryobiology, and a more popular choice when you decide you want to start a family later in life. Here’s what it’s all about…

2-4 weeks of self-administered hormone injections and birth control pills to temporarily turn off natural hormones. 10-14 days of hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries and ripen multiple eggs.

Once the eggs have matured, they are removed with a needle placed through the vagina under ultrasound guidance. This procedure is done under intravenous sedation and is not painful. The eggs are then immediately frozen. When the patient is ready to attempt pregnancy (this can be several years later) the eggs are thawed, injected with a single sperm to achieve fertilization, and transferred to the uterus as embryos. – source

When should I freeze my eggs?

The big question, WHEN? Generally women are in their ‘prime reproducing’ age in their 20s and early 30s, as we’re all born with all the eggs we will ever need. These number of eggs decline as we age and so does their cellular integrity, that means the quality of the eggs decrease as we age. There are many reasons as to why people freeze their eggs including; medical reasons, and delaying childbearing.

How much does it cost?

With any medical procedure there is a cost and a risk. You can get help with the costs if you qualify, and there are various other free options such as egg sharing ; where you donate your eggs to women going through IVF that are unable to produce their own eggs. The whole procedure can cost around £2,000 – £5,000 with additional costs including £250 annual fee of storage.

What are the success rates and risks?

There’s around a 65% rate of successful deliveries from frozen eggs, which is higher than from fresh eggs or frozen embryos. With studies so far showing no increase in birth defects. Although a relatively new procedure that’s been studied in the longterm, approximately 5,000 babies have been born from frozen eggs in the US. – source

However, according to Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority has published that these success rate is of just 20% amongst women using their own frozen eggs. – source Success rates explained here.

Is it for me?

If you’re in a demanding career and want to delay your child baring days, then you may consider freezing your eggs. However it is time consuming as one cycle takes around two menstrual cycles to complete the egg freezing process.

Overall you shouldn’t be fully dependant on freezing your eggs as it is not a 100% guarantee that if you decide later that you do want to start a family, you will have to go through the same success rates as anyone else going through IVF, with the addition of the success of unfreezing the eggs. Even with the new advances in technology the success rates are still quite low, but with the rate of new developing technology its possible it will be higher later on if you do decide it’s for you.

Would you consider freezing your eggs? Or have you been through IVF yourself? Let us know in the comments below!

Don’t compare your life to others

If you really wanted to play that game then let me introduce you to the CEO of Snapchat who is on the list of the worlds youngest billionaires. Some people are just lucky, some worked their asses off, but ultimately they didn’t do it in a day, nor being unproductive and procrastinating. So get yourself out there and active with the community!

Start saving

Pay off your debts and start saving for a mortgage and your pension. The earlier you start the more money you’ll have to tap into when you retire. It seems a way off but if you think about it, just putting £1 away everyday can save up for many things! Struggle with budgeting? Download a budgeting app or do it the old fashioned way on pen and paper, there’s even printable booklets that you can DIY.

But get out of the country

If you’ve never left your door step, it’s the perfect time to go travelling. You may not feel the need to leave your bubble now, but get that travel bug out of the way whilst you can! Before you’re tied down with anything, take advantage of your freedom and spontaneity. Go and see sights that you think look amazing on the screen, actually being there in person always has a different effect that seeing it on a tiny screen.

Wear sunscreen

You always hear about it but the sun can damage the skin so badly, it doesn’t affect your tan and doesn’t hurt to slap a bit on before you head out of the house! Team it with a bottle of water in your bag for you to sip through out the day and your body will thank you for it!

Put yourself first

Never settle for the second best in anything, always try your best to work harder and even in terms of relationships. You’ll get to a point in your life when you realise you have to sift through your friend list and pick out the friends that you think are worth keeping in contact with. If there’s effort made on both ends, then you have a relationship worth keeping. Even romantic relationships, if you aren’t both seeing eye to eye with the priorities in your life then maybe it’s not the right time to be in a relationship. C’est la vie!

Buying things for yourself is easy, as you know what you want. But what about buying a gift for the other half for their birthday??

Okay so you’ve been dating seriously now, and you probably can comfortably shop around and point out things that you both like as you browse the shops. Picking up on these small things and making a mental note earlier on will give you a good list to work on. I’d probably even drag him/her to a few specific shops to see if they fancy anything in there too, subtly of course!

Now it’ll obviously depends on their age range, but every guy is a big kid deep down. So I stick by the ‘big boys toys’, whether it’d be a few new games for the gamer nerd, or a toy that everyone’s going nuts for, have a nosy in these few shops:

Are they really into their games? Pre-order the new Gears of War out on 28th August from http://www.zavvi.com. Just make sure he hasn’t already got it on order, and that it won’t take away from your time together! You will have a good few game free days before the game arrives though!

What’s the hot new gadget that everyone’s going crazy for? Air wheel board!

Menkind are great for gadets, it’s even fun going in and having a browse around the crazy shop. It’s pretty pricey, but it’s the new scooter! With it’s futuristic look, and leaning speeds of up to 10mph, it’ll be amazing fun for everyone. So it could be one of those ‘Birthday gifts for you’ but really for me too!

Is he a gentleman that takes time on his grooming or you think he could benefit from a few tips on how to be the perfect gentleman? Then look no further than the iconic British perfume house Penhaligons.

Get his adrenaline on with a drive in a super car, or even as a great experience of a try before he goes and buys a Lamborghini! You can even practice your entry and exit out of a low car! They have an amazing range of great deals, so it’s worth a gander to see any local deals, or great offers abroad. Birthday Golf anyone?

So that’s a few gift ideas, that cover a range of possible gifts. But if you’re still stumped or simply too lazy check out www.findmeagift.co.uk and use the super easy click-through to find the perfect gift! They even have the horrific ‘Man thong’. Completely not implying birthday sex.

So I explained briefly on my vlog why I left Youtube for three years, but here’s the real reason why…

So the standard ‘I wanted to focus on my studies’ was one reason, but also it was because I was going through such a new experience and part of my life I wouldn’t even know where to start!

Leaving home to starting university in a completely new place is daunting, but it’s a great experience! You get all the independence you’ve ever wanted, but you also have to deal with time management and finances. Read my University Life Guide for some tips if you’re starting university in September.

But I was also going through my first ever break up at the time. Unknown to this alien experience, I learnt to cope with it in my own way; by starting afresh.

I also felt like a was pushing myself to be someone I wasn’t and perfecting at something I wasn’t enjoying. When you make videos as a Youtuber you need to love what you do, that’s one step to success. Your viewers will feel it when you’re forcing things. You need to connect with your audience and get feedback on what they want. Do they want you to do a trending hashtags video? Then do it! All in your own way and in your own comfort.

Never sell out. If you’re pushing products into peoples faces, people are going to go else ware.

Whether you chose Youtube as a personal documentation for your projects or as a hobby, make sure you enjoy it!

Educate yourself on how and when to use a condom. You laugh, but incorrectly worn condoms are pretty ineffective. If you’re a know-it-all about STIs then good for you, if not then read up about them here. Genital warts can be transmitted through skin on skin contact, this is even before penetration. So make sure his junk is wrapped!

Now days you can get free mail order chlamydia, gonorrhea or even HIV do at home tests in some parts of the UK, to make testing more confidential and easier. Check if they post to your area here.

There are a lot of female contraceptives available free from your GP to choose from, they don’t prevent STIs (only condoms do that) but here’s a quick round up…

The coil is the most effective with 99% protection against unwanted pregnancies – unsure about stuff going up there? Read on…

The implant is a quick nick in the arm and you don’t have to worry about taking the pill at the same time everyday (most effective way to use the oral contraceptive)

Which brings me onto the oral contraceptive, the most popular form in a tiny pill commonly only a few millimetres in diameter. It’s to be taken once a day.

Generally all contraceptives contain hormones that take a while to get into the system (around 3 days) to become effective, and then is entirely reversible once removed/stopped.

If you would like more advice on any of the subjects today, contact a professional i.e. your GP/nurse/sexual health clinic.

Relationships take effort and time from both parties to maintain, but when break ups happen. It’s hard to get over.

You’ve been together for however long and have spent almost every waking moment together, so when you see something that reminds you of them you feel that sadness in your stomach again.

I describe a break up like a death, it’s an end of your ‘boyfriend’/’girlfriend’. They won’t exist anymore until you start a new relationship. So they say there are five stages of loss:

Denial,

Anger.

Bargaining.

Depression.

Acceptance.

You may feel like to go some of all of those stages but everyone has a right to bawl their eyes out. So here are my steps:

Cry until you cannot cry anymore.

Get get your ass out of bed and start making yourself feel damn good. This could be getting in a nice warm bath with all of the bubbles and bath salts, or putting on your favourite outfit that makes you feel GREAT.

Get out of the house and do something you’ve never done before. I read on Distractify Do something everyday that gets you out of your comfort zone, you will be thankful of it later on.

It takes time, but time will heal all scars. And don’t start another relationship until you are 100% sure you are ready for it.